Concept2 Forum

I have set up the Tuesday and Thursday sessions which this week will be the usual 10k and a 6k. <br /><br />We had some good sessions last week but still with loads of problems at the start getting everyone connected. There does not seem to be a pattern to when it works but I thought we could use this thread to try log any observations/thoughts that might help Digitalrowing getting the server software more stable.<br /><br />Here some random thoughts I have to start the ball rolling:<br /><br />1) E-row has worked almost 100% for me over the last 3 years ( including quite a few 7-8 entry sessions ) with only the occasional disconnection during a race. This proves E-row client and my connection is reliable so the only change has been the server where I can no longer admin races reliably. <br /><br />2) Are we sure that Rowpro only ( no E-row computers connected ) works 100% ?<br /><br />3) Chat has been mentioned a few times in the past in connection with online problems and there did seem to be a lot of it going when we had major problems on Thursday night.<br /><br />4) Number of people logged in. There does seem to be a load of people constantly logged in all the time for apparently no reason. <br /><br />5) Do not disturb does not work in E-row on the Digitalrowing server. It looks like the Digital rowing server sometimes ignores this flag and sends messages anyway. This happened while I tried to start a session ( during the connection phase ) and kept popping up "You currently have Do not disturb set....." messages which never used to happen with the E-row server. Maybe these interupts could stop the connection process because the E-row software is not expecting any chat to come from the server at that stage ? Can someone at Digitalrowing confirm if this might be something that the server might not be handling correctly ?<br /><br />6) Do quick races work better ? I wonder if this is the case or just that we switch to a QR for 2nd and 3rd attempts which eventually work. Would SR still work eventually anyway ?<br /><br />7) Leif and Dan's computers both worked well as admin but on Thursday it would not work well with Ernie even though all 3 are Rowpro. Is this consistent or has Ernie's worked well in the past and Leif/Dan had problems when acting as admin ?<br /><br />8) Connection speed has never seemed to be a problem as I used E-row with 28k dial-up for months without a problem. I suspect most people are using broadband but possibly something to consider if there are timeouts built into the software during the connection phase.<br /><br />9) Most of the problems occur during the connection phase and it seems that some people will see all rowers at green but others will see any combination of rowers in red and green. Is this what each p.c has connected to or what the server is reporting as connected to it ? ( Problably one for Digitalrowing to answer )<br /><br />That's it for now so please post any other observations/thoughts and we can hopefully piece something together to help get it all working smoothly.<br /><br />Cheers.<br /><br />Nigel.

Some good thoughts, Nigel<br /><br />After the latest improvements in Rowpro and the Digitalrowing race server (may/june 2005) it has become quiet about the online races. Everyone seemed pleased that 3 out 4 online races run OK (well, 80-90% score) compared to an occasional succes earlier this year. People seem to get used to the remaining bugs, although they can be very annoying and may lead to delayed or failed races. <br />I hope your thoughts will trigger Rowpro/E-row users to signal, <b>AND </b>Digital Rowing to address the remaining problems. Did you mail them about this thread? I think this place is a better place for a discussion than the forum on the digitalrowing.com site. <br /><br />See you online,<br /><br />Tom

I have rowed quite a few RowPro races since the last update without problems until yesterday.<br /><br />Yesterday, we couldn't get going. Then, in the cool down, I was kicked out. My monitor was still working and I could still see the other boats, but my boat wouldn't move on the screen and there was an error message. I stopped to clear the error message and the program crashed. I never saw this type of problem before.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Paul Flack

Overall, I have had pretty good luck with Rowpro races...both as admin and participant. Some thoughts: <br /><br />1. I believe that my problems yesterday were isolated to my personal hardware. I was using a different USB port, and after all the problems, I noticed that XP is having problems with the particular port. Once I dropped out of the race, it seemed to go off fine. I rebooted my computer, changed USB ports, and rowed an online piece...albeit alone...and everything worked fine.<br /><br />2. I sense that one person with a poor internet connection can mess up everything. Not sure, but it seems that a "flashing" grey/red signal is a sure sign we are going to a QR and going to have to drop the individual who is flashing.<br /><br />3. Chat needs some work. It always reverts to the first comment in a converation instead of the last.<br /><br />Ernie<br /><br /><br />

Hello Nigel,<br /><br />I recently did a 6k on rowpro. It appeared to work properly, however; the result was not posted.<br /><br />I see people logged on all the time as well. I am thinking that although they may have closed the program, the program is still active because they have left their computer on. I have closed the program and unexpectedly a message popped up from the chat.<br /><br />I haven't used erow in a while. If you decide to post races on regular erow this month, mentioned it here on the concept 2 forum. This month, I should be able to do some of them.<br /><br />Also, we have rowed exactly the same number of meters for 60-minutes. I did a 60-minute session a few days ago, rowed 16393, which is a personal best, ranked it, and saw we are tied. I was very happy with this result being that my prior personal best is 16126 meters in 2003 and I was rowing sub-6:20 for 2k at the time. Just saw that someone on this forum yesterday had rowed close to 16500 meters and was now hoping to break 6:40. 6:40?! Are you kidding me? You are rowing nearly 1:49 for an hour and you are now hoping to get under 6:40? It appears looking at the ranking that 17000 meters is common among the faster people although there is no hard association between 60-minutes and 2k, as evident by my own results.<br /><br />Later,<br />Thomas

Hi Thomas,<br /><br />Well done on the 60min p.b. I did mine a about 5 weeks ago and was aiming for anything sub 1:50. Hopefully next time I will be on for 16400+ now I have broken the 1:50 barrier.<br /><br />I have sent a PM to Peter at DigitalRowing about our online problems so hopefully he will be able to comment on any findings we have. I am keen to hear his thoughts on the chat in E-row and if there are any technical reasons as to why it might stop the sessions starting.<br /><br />If anyone else does have any observations about any sessions ( did it work,how many people logged in etc. ) then please post in this thread.<br /><br />Cheers.<br /><br />Nigel.

Nigel<br /><br />I am online in the weekday flat now, only on pay as you go dialup at present, but the adsl order is in place and from next week I should be back on e-row.<br /><br />Still on strict schedule with Eddie, but Tues 10km/40min fits in well with your sessions.<br /><br />Not too sure about the new server thugh, I will be using e-row as the pc won't run rowpro fast enough.